Federal Transport Minister Bilger is calling for the reintroduction of family reservations on the railway

If families reserve seats together on the train, it has been more expensive since June 2025. The Transport Minister is now campaigning for a return of the discounted rail offer.

Family reservation was abolished in June 2025. Is she coming back? Photo: Uwe Zucchi/dpa

Berlin. Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) is pushing for the reintroduction of family reservations, which were abolished at Deutsche Bahn. “We are in discussions with the railway about this,” Bilger told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Deutsche Bahn abolished family reservations in June 2025. Until then, families could reserve up to five seats together for 10.40 euros. Since then, each place has to be paid for individually. A petition for the reintroduction started by the German Transport Club was signed by more than 128,000 people.

Bilger said there was “rightly a lot of dissatisfaction” because of the loss of family reservations. “That’s why I criticized it at the time.” At the same time, he emphasized: “The railway generally has a lot of good offers for families.”

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